I am thinking of writing a story where I the writer is included in the story and part of it. basically I the writer will interact with my characters throughtout the story. I am now working of how to illustrate it. I the writer He/she/they the characters OR We( I and the characters) are He/She/they... Is it better to use I all the way through the story which makes it a type of narrative. or Give myslef a name/character and then interact with my characters. I do not want it to be obvious to the readers however, otherwise it will spoil it.
Like in the Notebook right? If you don't want the reader to know that the narrator is also one of the main characters, don't use "I". Make it third person, but give the narrator a strong voice. And of course the narrator will refer to themselves in the story in the third person.
Apologise if I seem nosey but are you basing the story on yourself and the environment around you or is it all completely fictional apart from yourself? Making up a world that you'd like to live in for instance?
Steven King put himself in part of the Dark Tower Series. Of course he didn't base the entire story on that. It was just one part among many others.
Isn't this just the very much well established first person narrator with framing device, i.e they are writing their memoirs, narrating in an interview, telling the grandkids etc? First person narratives where the narrator is a character in the story are as old as the hills.
I'm not sure exactly how you're thinking of doing it, but I just want to say that I didn't like how Stephen King did it. I'm not sure why... I think it just went a little too far and disrupted my suspension of disbelief.
You are not being nosey at all. The story is nothing to do with me. It is entirely fictional and yes you are spot on the idea is based in a world I would like to live in.
Is the book The Dark Tower? @muscle979 what did you make of it? I could not pick up the book for love or money. Too much for me.
I am not into narrative, I do not see the point of them. I tend to switch off in narrative, it is all a kind of me me me, which I can't stand in a story. I am trying to come alive with my characters, without the reader knowing. It is just an experiment.
. so how do you expect to write a readable story if it's all dialog and nothing happens? and what stories/books do you read, if you won't read anything with narrative?
Just as a matter of interest, do you even know what a narrative is? Like, a definition of a narrative, the types of narrative etc? You might want to look it up.
Oh no I am not going to because it can be hard work although it could be done if it is played on stage. I read all sorts but I tend to get bored after a while from a narrative. I find narrative dull. I prefer a story to take shape with an outsider/characters around it. a narrative is one dimentional and is subjective /one way to the writer. I prefer a story that has more then one interpretations. That is me.
yes I do knwo what a narrative is. As I said to mamma I am the kind of reader that likes stories to takes shape around the charatcters created by the writer. I like multidementional stories where different interpretations of it is said through the eyes of a created characters and not the writer themselves. I relate to characters I do not relate to the writer if it is a book I am reading. I like a story to be embodied and lived through characters without a narrative tone to it.
I am sorry, but what does this have to do with my question? You said Let's have a look at the definition of a narrative: So you see, Cacian, narrative is synonymous with "story", and if you ever watched a tv show, listened to the lyrics of a song or read a book, and you liked it, you are in fact into the concept of a narrative. Everything you write, whatever weird or wonderful style you choose to use, is all a narrative. So really, I have absolutely no idea what you are trying to say other than that you don't know the meaning of the word you are discussing.
I've seen this done in a couple of ways. I've seen it done where it turns out, at the end (or maybe you know all along), the reader finds out that the character was actually the "author" of the actual book they were reading, and that it was intended as a memoir or a diary or something. "The Notebook" has been mentioned as an example; also, in the book version of "Freaky Friday" (which I read maybe...10 years ago?), at the end of the book you learn that the whole story was written by the teenage daughter for her English class (the actual book is supposed to be what she turned in for her assignment). Besides that method, there's "breaking the fourth wall." This is where the character(s) and/or writer acknowledge that they're in a story - for example, by saying things like "my dear reader" as though they're speaking out of the book. As for the question about type of narrative - first person ("I") and third person (he/she did this and that) have their own pros and cons. With first person, you get to write through the MC's perspective and have more ability to flesh out the workings of his/her mind and perceptions, as well as character development with change in voice. With third person, you might lack that type of intimacy, but you also gain perspectives from other characters. If you have to convey info to the readers that the main POV wouldn't have access to, then first person is probably not a good choice. It depends on the type of info your story needs to convey and on your personal skill level with writing in the voices of characters who may be different from you.
Hey Mallory thank you for this. I have heard the fourth wall so thank youfor bringing this up again. I am not doing anyhting like this. I am being a character in the book and I am 'plodding'along if you like. I wish to keep this as some kind signature of my style of writing. I wish to use it without the reader being aware of it. So in every story I would write I wlll create my own character that will join with the story which should make it fun. It would be like being in a film as an actor. An actor usually talk about their character in a given film using the pronoun of HE or SHE. so I would kind of the same,so my character would be a he/she in the story I write. The same idea.
To me it didn't really add or take much away from the story, it was just kind of there. A guy like King can get away with that I suppose. This was only one small part of a large scale epic storyline. This story uses a multiple dimension type concept and in it King ends up meeting his creation and series protagonist, Roland the last gunslinger. They have to do some things together to further advance Roland on his quest for the Dark Tower, I don't think I would have added it but as I said it didn't ruin the story for me or anything.
The Hunger Games is written in the first person and the author uses I and We when they're required. This book is however written where the reader is literally watching the action from inside the main character's head. This caused problems for my fiance when she was reading it because she didn't respond well to being told how the main character's face was moving. "My mouth tilts up at the corners." sort of thing. Preincarnate is also written where the narrator is a part of the story and it's written as a recounting of events. It's written in the past tense and breaks the fourth wall and is written from the perspective of the author having interviewed the characters. Personally, I suffered no problems reading either of these books, but there are traps and pitfalls with both.
cacian... you seem to be confused as to what narrative actually is... it's everything in a work of fiction that is NOT dialog... do you understand that if a story has no narrative, then it would consist only of dialog, with no description of anything or anybody and no action whatsoever?... and do you know that the 'narrator' [the one who's telling the story] can either be one [or more] of the characters, or a totally neutral 'observor'?...
I think I understood by narrative as someone telling a you story rather then letting the story take shape using characters. An example of what I mean is documentaries where by the narrator is reading a script as the documentary is being played on TV. That is what I understood by narrative. A narrator is someone who tells a story by reading a script.
Listen to Maia. Narrative is what is left when you exclude dialogue. Narration is closer to what you are referring to. Such is English. Small variations have very different meanings.
